twain, but one flefh. What, therefore, God hath joined to gether, let no man put asunder.

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John the Baptift incurred the imputation of being poffeffed with a devil, becaute he was a man of more auftere manners,1 and of a more fequeftered mode of living; because he "came neither eating bread nor drinking wine." His divine Mafter, more gentle in deportment, more affable, acceffible, and condefcending, because he mixed with fociety, because he "came eating and drinking," is by the felf-fame perfons represented as "a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and finners." Where there is a difpofition to cenfure, no purity nor prudence can escape. "Nothing can please the peevish children in the market place. If their fellows excite them to dance by the found of the pipe, they are difpofed to look grave' and mourn it their companions are in a ferious mood, it is with them a time to dance. You cannot tell where to find them. It is not, at the fame time, a mark of wisdom to brave the opinion of the world; but wo be to that man whofe conduct has no better regulator than either popular opinion, or the decifions of a felf-conftituted cenfor. Chrift has by example taught his disciples to feek, and to take opportunities of being ufeful, whatever conftruction may be put upon it by malig nant observers.

"The mother of Jefus was there," apparently, as one of the family, who took an interest in the credit of her relations, and to assist in attending to the comfort and accommodation of the guefls; for we find her watching over the expenditure of the provifion, and devifing the means of fupply when it fhould fail. But Jelus and his dilciples were among the perfons fpecially invited. As the aim of the Evangelift is fimply to detail the circumftances relating to the miracle, every thing foreign to this is fuppreffed. This remark is applicable to the. facred writers in general. They prefent the leading object in its ftrongest features, leave it to make its native impreffion, and' pals from it without exclaiming, without parade, without a commentary. On the other hand, where minutenefs of deIcription and enumeration is neceffary or of importance, all is examined with a microfcopic eye, and beauties disclose themfelves to clofeness of investigation which the careless glance had overlooked.

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Whether the company had proved more numerous than was expected, or whether a provifion too fcanty had been made, but in the middle of the banquet wine failed. Things which are in themselves, and as far as man is concerned, merely contingent, are predifpofed and produced by a fpecial in

terpofition

terpofition of divine Providence, to fulfil föme valuable parpofe. This little awkwardnefs of domestic arrangement furnifhed occafion for a grand difplay of almighty power. The deficiency was obferved by the mother of Jefus, who commu'nicated it to him as fimply a remark of her own. But did hot the communication partake of the nature of request, of expetiation, of fuggeftion?" They have no wine:" Is not this faying, can nothing be done to lave the credit of the family? They will fuffer in the ellimation of their friends, as too parfimonious at a feafon of feftivity like the prefent. Canft thou nd no fupply? There muft, undoubtedly, have been fomething offenfive in her meaning or mode of expreffion, for the meets with a reproof. And the mildest cenfure from fuch lips is a mark of displealure. As to Nathanael before, fo to Mary now he gives proof that he could read in the heart, what had not yet fallen from the tongue: "Jefus faith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." Woman:" we are not to eflimate the fpirit and import of this term of addrefs by the refinement of our modern ideas and manners. A British female of very middling rank would con'fider herfelf as very highly infulted to be thus abruptly accofted by an equal, from an interior it would be intolerable, and even in a fuperior it would be refented. But it was the appellation by which princes addreffed themselves to ladies of the highest rank, and which even flaves employed in fpeaking to their miftreffes, for it marks refpe&t not familiarity. And we have a demonstration, in the prefent cafe, that it could imply nothing harth or unkind, for it is Jefus who ufes the word in fpeaking to his mother. On an occafion ftill more tender and interefting, when fovereign love was in iis triumph, and dictated every expreffion; when his crofs was furrounded by fore of the perfons who witneffed the miracle of Cana of Galilee; this converfation took place: "When Jefus, therefore, faw his mother, and the difciple flanding by whom he loved, he faith unto his mother, Woman," behold thy fon! Then faith he to the difciple, behold thy mother! And from that hour that difciple took her unto his own home." Here was the dying effufion of filial affection: "Woman, behold thy fon."

"What have I to do with thée." This has an air of feverity, and probably was intended to check encroachment. There is a point beyond which parental authority itself must not prefumé to go. At the age of twelve, excefs of maternal folicitude received a mild rebuke: "How is it that ye fought me? wilt ye not that I must be about my Father's bufinefs?" Nevertheless *he went down with them" from the temple, "and 'came to Nazareth,

Nazareth, and was fubject unto them." But to the man of , thirty even a mother must not prefume to dictate, or fo much as infinuate. The words of the original have by fome been differently tranflated; and Jefus is made to fay, in reply to his mother's obfervation, "they have no wine," "What is that to me and thee?" What does it concern us whether there be wine or not? Such a queftion is little in the fpirit of, Chrift, who > took a condefcending and an affectionate intereft in all the infirmities and diftreffes incident to humanity, and to whom nothing could be indifferent which tended to promote the comfort of others; and the fequel plainly fhews, that he actually cherished thofe kind affections, and expreffed them in a manner peculiar to himself. It is more natural to adopt our common verfion, confiftent as it is with the fame fenfe of the phrase in a variety of other paffages."The devils coming out of the tombs exceeding fierce," in the country of the Gergefenes, exclaim, "What have we to do with thee, Jefus, thou Son of God?" Meaning evidently; "We are afraid of thee; let us alone; we defire no acquaintance with thee; art thou come hither to torment us before the time ?" The feventy interpreters tranflate the Hebrew idiom in the fame phrafeology and fpirit, in a great many paffages. Thus Jephthah addreffed the king of Ammon," What haft thou to do with me?" saying plainly, "I with no intercourse; we can have nothing in common; Wherefore fhould we go to war together ?" And thus, not to multiply inftances, David faid to Abifhai, when he proprofed to go over and, in cold blood, to cut off Shimei's head, "What have I to do with you, ye fons of Zeruiah ?” “I like not your fpirit; I want no fuch triumph; let God's will be done you are taking his work out of his hand, and are deciding haftily when you ought to wait patiently." This is entirely in the fpirit of the paffage before us. "Woman, what have I to do with thee ?" "Intrude not; prefcribe not; I know what is fit for me to do; all my movements are already fettled." In this view all is of a piece; all breathes the spirit of meeknefs; there is the majefly of Deity, and there is the united firmness and mildness of the man.

If there be any thing like fternnefs in the question, "What have I to do with thee ?" it is funk in.the folemn affeveration concerning himfelf: "mine hour is not yet come." The hour of a man's birth, of his baptism, of his majority, of his marriage, of his death, is an epoch of fingular importance both to him. felf and others. We measure time, we know its value, and we trifle with it. With an experience of its neceffary lapfe, and with the certain knowledge that no moment can be refponfi

ble

ble for the debt of its predeceffor, having enough to do with itself, the thoughtless fons of men will be drawing on a day which they are never to fee, and they fport with borrowed property as if it were their own. The wife man, in the face of this reckoning of folly and madness, ftates the just account of the expenditure and use of time: "There is a feason, and a' time to every purpose under the heaven.' But we look up to Him who is wifer than the wifeft, that we may learn to measure time, to understand the value of a day, and to improve the flying hour, which is gone before we are fenfible that it

has come.

"Mine hour is not yet come." It is an expreffion applied to various events of Chrift's life and miniftry. When his unbelieving brethren urged him, by way of defiance, to go up to Jerufalem at the feaft of tabernacles, and there make an open difplay of his miraculous powers, this was his reply: "My time is not yet come-Go ye up unto this feaft: I go not up unto this teaft; for my time is not yet full come ;" intimating that all his movements and operations were regulated to a moment, and therefore could neither be hurried forward nor retarded. When he did go up to Jerufalem, and taught openly in the temple, though his plainrefs and fidelity gave much. offence, it is remarked that 86 no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come :" that is, the hour of his apprehenfion, trial and condemnation. When the devout Greeks who had come to worship in the temple, defired an interview with him, Jefus faid to his difciples; "The hour is come that the Son of man fhould be glorified;" meaning the dawn of the gofpel day upon the gentile world. But while he rejoiced in fpirit, as he contemplated that aufpicious hour, he faw it lead ing to another and a darker hour, the hour of fuffering and death. The profpect spreads a tranfient cloud over the ferenity of his mind, and he said: “ Nów is my foul troubled : and what fhall I fay ? Father, lave me from this hour." Thus far the man of finless infirmity. But the cloud paffes away, ferenity is restored and the hour of forrow is loft in contemplating the glory that fhould follow, the accomplishment of his heavenly Father's purpose of mercy, in the redemption of a loft world: "but for this caufe came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." When his "time was full come" that he fhould glorify God by his death, with heavenly compofure "Jefus lifted up his eyes, and faid, Father the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son alfo may glorify thee." Thus every step of the Redeemer's progrefs was weighed, measured, established

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eftablifhed by an antecedent counfel incapable of being overthrown or of failing.

His mother, though reproved, is not wholly difcouraged. She perceives that whatfoever he did muft be done at his own time and in his own way, and therefore enjoins the fervants carefully to attend to whatever he fhould fay unto them.

The ablutions, at this period, practifed among the Jews, were carried to an abfurd and fuperftitious excefs. The law had indeed prescribed certain washings, which nature herfelt points out as conducive to health, cleanlinefs and comfort; but tradition had multiplied thefe without end; they had acquired an authority paramount to that of law, and the primary duties of life were funk in an affected attention to external purity." The Pharifees," fays St. Mark," and all the Jews, except they wafh their hands oft eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash they eat not. And many other things there be which they have received to hold, as the wafhing of cups, and pots, brafen veffels, and of tables." This drew upon them a fevere cenfure from the lips of Jefus Chrift. He charges them with the vileft hypocrify, in "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." "For," fays he," laying afide the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other fuch like things ye do." "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." He then produces, as an inftance, their open and avowed violation of the fifth precept of the decalogue, engraven by nature on the heart of man, and proclaimed from Sinai by the mouth of God. The unnatural child had but by a vow to devote his fubstance to a pretendedly facred purpose, in order to be for ever releafed from all obligation to affit aged or decayed parents. Thus a punctilious attention to washing the body could be reconciled to a deliberate purpofe of hardening the heart. Thefe copious and frequent ablutions account for the large provifion of water made for the marriage feat." There were fet fix water-pots of ftone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece." To pretend to afcertain the quantity, by the names of ancient measurement, would be nugatory and abfurd. If the thing could be done, what profit would arise from it? It is not well known that all the wildom of the British legifla ture, though frequently exerted, has hitherto been unable to eftablish a standard of weights and meafures for the fouthern divifion of this little ifland? The precife quantity is left in intentional obícurity, by the ufe of the indefinite expreflion two